Mitch

Automotive News Europe INGOLSTADT, Germany -- Audi AG is still wrestling with its SUV strategy for the United States. The German automaker has not decided whether to bring its new allroad quattro to the United States, says Ralph Weyler, board member for sales and marketing. The vehicle, based on a raised version of the A6 Avant wagon, will be sold in Europe, Weyler says. Audi unveiled a concept version of the allroad quattro at the Detroit auto show in January. The automaker offers an allroad quattro in the United States, but speculation was that it would be replaced by the upcoming Q7 SUV. Although the jury is out on the allroad quattro, Audi has firm plans for the Q7, which shares a platform with the Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne. The Q7 will come to the United States in mid-2006, according to Weyler. "The Q7 is more sporty than the Mercedes M class or BMW X5," he says. But Audi faces a disadvantage because Mercedes-Benz and BMW assemble their SUVs in the United States. Audi CEO Martin Winterkorn says its Bratislava, Slovakia, plant will make the Q7 competitive. He also says the company has not decided whether it will make vehicles in the United States. "Everybody thinks a production plant is the final answer to the U.S. market," Weyler says. "But it's only one component." Sourcing components wisely in low-cost countries can help just as much, he says. Meanwhile, Winterkorn would not rule out price increases in the United States, where the dollar is weak against the euro. Weyler says Audi wants to sell 90,000 units in the United States this year, up from 77,917 sold in 2004. The United States is Audi's second-largest market after Germany. Audi has 263 dealers in the United States. Of those, 80 are exclusive. Weyler says Audi plans to increase the number of exclusives to about 120 in 2005. Source: http://www.autoweek.com

Totoshop évidemment...

Tout est dans le titre... VW a décidé d'appliquer à nouveau en Europe le nom initial de la VW Jetta et non plus Bora...

Ca se confirme...

Les retros ressemblent à s'y méprendre à ceux du Touareg à part qu'ils n'ont pas les clignos intégrés sur la base, ce qui pourrait expliquer le camouflage sur la tof dans le sable... On peut donc espérer qu'ils soient uniquement nécessaires durant les 5-6 mois de tests à venir... Pour rappel, sur le concept Allroad, les clignotants sont intégrés aux rétroviseurs latéraux en plus de ceux des blocs optiques avant et arrière. L'espoir fait vivre...

Le constructeur automobile allemand Audi (marques Audi, Seat, Lamborghini) reste prudent pour l'exercice en cours, après voir affiché l'an dernier un bénéfice net record. Audi (groupe VW) attend cette année «un résultat stable» par rapport à l'an dernier, une prévision modeste après plusieurs années de forte croissance. Le constructeur souhaite toutefois augmenter sa production et ses ventes «de manière significative» cette année. Son patron, Martin Winterkorn, vise le million de voitures vendues chaque année d'ici 2008. (Reuters)

Toutes les photos de cette soirée ici ... et une p'tite video.... ici

Voici donc 2 photos furtives du Q7.... héhé... Toutes les photos de cette soirée mémorable ici Quelques aussi tofs de l'Allroad Concept... Bonne journée

Merci HervéG ! et rien sur le Q7 ou sur l'Allroad Concept ?!... Pourtant, on parle d'une présentation surprise... Escorted by bodyguards like a superstar, it fulfilled its first official engagement in front of hundreds of media representatives: the Audi Q7, the prototype of a new SUV generation, put in a surprise appearance at the "quattro Night" on February 21, 2005 when it rolled onto the piazza of the Audi Forum in Ingolstadt.

un autre spyshot mais avec beaucoup de camouflage... même le single frame est caché...

j'ai reçu le courrier... et j'ai pris directement rdv chez le concessionnaire le 28 février.

C'est peut-être un coup de pub mais ce record est tout de même officialisé par le Guiness Book... VW Touareg Sets World Altitude Record Text & photos courtesy VW AG edited 02-18-2005 VW Touareg conquers the summit Where others fail, the Volkswagen Touareg just keeps going up and up – to an altitude of exactly 6080 metres. The Touareg Expedition from Volkswagen Individual is confirmed as holding the "Guinness Book of Records” entry for the highest altitude recorded for a vehicle. On 29 January 2005, battling against icy winds and a lack of oxygen, the expedition team fought its way through the lunar landscape of the Ojos del Salado, the world’s highest volcano, in a standard Touareg Expedition to achieve the world’s altitude record for vehicles. The altimeter and GPS system displayed an altitude of 6080 metres. This is the highest point on the surface of the Earth that a vehicle can reach and safely return from. On 16. February the confirmation came from London: the record has been officially recognised by the “Guinness Book of Records”. The Touareg has thus impressively proven its strengths in extreme conditions and surpassed the performance of all other off-road vehicles. The route of the team of eight, headed by expedition leader Rainer Zietlow, first took them through the Atacama desert, the world’s driest area. The base camp is located at 4,400 metres above sea level above the salt lake Laguna Santa Rosa, famous for its pink flamingos. From here the trail continues over stones and pebbles with an 80 % gradient, snow fields and soft volcanic sand. At the wheel of the Volkswagen Touareg was Ronald Bormann, who has won the European Truck Trail competition several times. In sections where rocks as large as a man blocked the path, the winch, fitted as standard to the Touareg Expedition, helped the team on its way. The additional spotlights, also part of the standard equipment package, fitted to the roof rack containing spare wheels and rescue equipment, lit the way through the night to the rock-strewn summit. As the air became thinner at 5,000 metres above sea level, the crew was given additional oxygen by altitude specialist Dr Rainald Fischer. In this way the chairman of the Association for Mountain and High Altitude Medicine (BExMED) was able to ward off the potentially life-threatening altitude sickness. The Institute for Cartography at the University of Dresden helped to select the route to the summit following a recent four-week survey of the summit region for the purpose of making new maps. The knowledge gained by the expedition will help the scientists verify their work. However, the most important scientific aspect of the expedition to a region endangered by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions was the installation of a seismographic station, managed by the Geological Research Centre in Potsdam. This station makes it possible to register eruptions directly above possible earthquake focus sites, thus advancing global earthquake research. In town, on country roads and on the motorway, as a service vehicle at the Dakar rally, as a globetrotter in the Touareg “experience 360°” circumnavigation of the world, or as an expedition vehicle used for scientific purposes - the Volkswagen Touareg has once again impressively shown that it is equipped ex factory for a wide range of situations.

http://www.bb-automobiltechnik.de/bb2004/d...lf_v_20tfsi.php

Merci Ypos... Je signe où ??

Une A8 3.0L tdi démarre à ± 61K €... et le Touareg 3.0L TDI démarre à 52K €... Voici un bref comparatif des prix en € ... La concurrence est (déjà) rude... Je vois mal un Q7 démarrer à plus de 60K € (sauf s'il uniquement équippé d'un FSI de 500ch... ) Cayenne 3.2 V6 52.151 4.5 V8 S 65.219 4.5 V8 Turbo 107.327 X3 2.0d 36.400 2.5i 41.100 3.0d 43.400 3.0i 43.400 X5 3.0d 155kW 46.800 3.0d 160kW 46.800 3.0i 47.500 4.4i 66.600 4.8is 85.500 VOLKSWAGEN Touareg 2.5 R5 TDi 120kW 44.930 2.5 R5 TDi 128kW 44.930 3.2 V6 50.080 3.0 V6 TDi 52.000 4.2 V8 65.430 5.0 V10 TDi 78.140 VOLVO XC90 D5 Kinetic 43.890 2.5 T Kinetic 45.450 D5 Momentum 47.040 2.5 T Momentum 48.600 D5 Summum 49.340 T6 Kinetic 49.950 2.5 T Summum 50.900 T6 Momentum 53.100 T6 Summum 55.400 D5 Executive 60.220 T6 Executive 64.100 V8 Summum 64.150 V8 Executive 72.850

On discerne mieux la ligne générale mais y'a encore pas mal de camouflage sur la calandre, y compris sur l'insert de la plaque avant, de même que sur les phares avants et arrières (bien que çà saute aux yeux pour l'arrière), sans compter les pares chocs avant et arrière où l'on ne peut distinguer clairement les différences avec le pare-chocs avant de la nouvelle A6... Autre détail, sur ce type de véhicule, les jantes font beaucoup, or ici, c'est du 16 ou 17 pouces si je ne m'abuse... Ypos, si t'as le temps, insères nous les roues du Pikes Peak... Moi qui était sur le point de commander une nouvelle A6 Avant Quattro, j'ai préfèré attendre fin 2005/début 2006 pour mieux choisir...

Merci Ypos ! Il semblerait qu'il soit plutôt présenté au Salon de Frankfort....

http://www.joeytomatoes.com/audilikeyourmother.htm

j'ai justement demandé une offre assez similaire en janvier... Perso, je préfère de loin la suspension pneumatique, c'est nettement plus confortable ! Avec la suspension pneumatique, il s'agit -à mon humble avis- d'une A6 équivalente à un Allroad.... et c'est un peu ce qui m'a fait changer d'avis... je préfère attendre le Q7 et comparer à ce moment-là... d'autant plus qu'une A6 Avant à plus de 60,000 €, c'est franchement pas donné pour ce que c'est... ce sera à mon avis dans la gamme de prix du Q7... J'ai aussi noté qu'une A8 avec le même moteur tourne autour du même budget ! A bon entendeur...

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Fleet of 63 Audi A8 Cars on Valentine's Day Wedding of football star Ronaldo and Daniella Cicarelli The football star Ronaldo (Luiz Nazario da Lima) is marrying the Brazilian TV presenter Daniella Cicarelli on Valentine's Day. The wedding will take place in the evening of February 14 at the fairytale palace of Chantilly, to the north of Paris, in the company of some 300 guests. The celebrity guests will be chauffeur-driven to the exclusive wedding by a fleet of 63 Audi A8 cars. The Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer has arranged for a fleet of the long-wheelbase version of its Audi A8 luxury saloon to be available for this assignment. 47 cars are equipped with 6.0 litre engines, 16 cars with 4.2 litre engines. The Audi saloons, predominantly in light silver and with quattro drive, will transfer the guests from their hotels in the centre of Paris to the palace of Chantilly. The bride and groom will likewise arrive for the wedding ceremony in the chapel in a long-wheelbase Audi A8. Audi is the official car partner of the football club Real Madrid, and has been since July 2003. Since then the club's stars have been driving Audi's most sporty models. The Brazilian Ronaldo has played for Real Madrid since 2002, winning the Spanish league title in his very first season with the club. He was the top scorer in Spain in 2004 and has already been voted FIFA's Player of the Year on three occasions. Ronaldo, who plays as a striker, opted for Audi's most powerful model for the second time: after his Audi RS6, he has been driving the Audi A8 6.0 quattro with an output of 450 bhp since November 2004. Audi has provided the chauffeur service for several state visits, EU and World Economic Summits and the Salzburg Festival since 1987. Audi also supplied a fleet in Spain's “Wedding of 2004” last May, when Crown Prince Felipe and his bride Letizia were driven through Madrid in an Audi A8 saloon.